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Yogawoman: New Documentary Roars with Empowerment – Watch the Trailer

in YD News, Yoga On Film

Hey it’s a new yogamentary! On women! Shocker, right? Women practice yoga? Really though, Yogawoman is a film on how yoga, and the subculture surrounding it, has been embraced, bolstered and transformed by women the world over. It’s as much about female empowerment as it is about yoga practice. Some critics are already disagreeing over the historical facts and references noted, while others claim the premise itself is sexist.

For our own two cents, we have a really hard time getting over the dramatized cinematic yoga effect – seriously, we’re just waiting for the cut to massive explosions. “Yoga: it’s a revolution! kabooom!” Michael Bay style.

What we appreciate about the trailer are the valid points about yoga and body image, and what it means to be a woman in today’s world. Also, the truth that women have turned yoga into a multi-billion dollar industry. Yep, stretchy pants’d ladies take a bow.

Watch the trailer. Tell us what you think. Featuring star players: Seane Corn, Cyndi Lee, Elena Brower, Patricia Walden, Sharon Gannon, Linda Sparrowe.

In record numbers women are discovering their own strength, vitality, peace and power through yoga. Reclaiming this ancient spiritual path from its traditionally male form, the result is a radical transformation of modern yoga as we know it.

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Earlier

32 comments… add one
  • I liked that you saw women of all shapes and sizes in the trailer… will be really curious to see what it’s like in real life. I dig that there’s a movie about women in yoga, but you are right: is this news anymore? I am sure no matter what it will be entertaining 😉

  • I look forward to seeing it in it’s entirety.

  • Yoga has given me the gift of empowerment. I hope this film can encourage more women to become their true selves.

  • abbylou

    I look forward to watching the entire film. Does anyone know whether the film goes beyond the effects of asana practice on women?

  • markd

    Why do the women wear their make-ups to hot yoga practice?

  • I agree with you, YD. Boom! It Will Turn Your World Upside Down. And I agree with the others that it will be interesting to see the whole film.

  • shana

    markd… we wear our make up to hot yoga because we ran there directly from work.

  • Wow. That WAS dramatic. I might need some pranayama just to calm my senses after that.

    I’ll totally watch it, but I do hope it’s a little less over-dramatic than the trailer implies.

  • This looks wonderful – but I definitely want to see more than the trailer before I judge. From the brief clips in the trailer though, I do like that the film decided to venture outside of the U.S.. – I hope there is continued equal emphasis on women in different cultures throughout the movie.

  • Yoda Girl

    Great … can’t wait for this one.
    Simply the best and bravo for this great idea.

  • Yogi-A

    “I must have that dress.”
    has become “I must have those nice tanks and pants for yoga.” and “I must go to that teacher’s class at a certain time, and if I don’t, I’ll cry my eyes out.”

    btw, lulu’s target demographic is women age 25-38~ish, single, and upper-middle class income female…hmmm….I think that would account for a good 90% of the people I see in yoga classes.

    Will be interesting to see how things are depicted in this documentary.

    P.S. The Yama and Niyama are there to remove all these desires and emotions in daily lives, not sure how many people practice them, but everyone loves the anasa practice…

  • abbylou

    @Yogi-A

    Are you saying that 90% of the people in your yoga classes are there because they belong to a demographic that was successfully targeted by Lululemon? Where do you practice? Are you the teacher, or a student?

  • Dayita

    And you wonder where the dudes are?

    • Jen

      Plenty of guys in my classes! It’s great to have a balance of masculine and femine energy in class!

  • JeffreyD

    For the most part, Western yoga is a trendy way for women to achieve a skinny-fat aesthetic. It’s an unnatural fit to the trailer’s 2nd wave feminist tone.

    • Jen

      Skinny-fat???? Please explain!

  • Interesting…with the exception of a few frames, most of the women practicing were the “ideal body” type of what most average women strive to look like. I would have preferred more of the ” real women, real body” scenes of women practicing. Hopefully, the movie offers more of this.

    • Pam

      Being fit doesn’t mean you have a ‘fake’ body … someone with muscles has just as much a ‘real body’ as someone who’s less fit 🙂

  • Can’t wait to see this!

  • I would like to see it and depending on how the whole documentary is I am thinking it could be good for women and girls of all ages to see. I liked the messages about what yoga can bring to women, which can be huge to our adolescences. I do agree I would like to see the whole thing before I judge.

  • i like the whole cutting through the drama with yoga idea, but damn, this video’s intense. uhh, it’s yoga – no empowering feminine video necessary. i dig it, though, for the (female) yoga skeptics.

    so… can we all call ourselves yogawomen now?? 😉

  • Jen

    Ok.. The trailer is dramatic, but it shows they put effort into it! Can’t wait to see this. I am assuming it will be avaiable for ourchase through the yogakula website, but I have no idea when.

  • There are some points in the trailer yep. But it didn’t make me want to watch the film. It just sounds like another go-woman half-spiritual kabooom stuff. Not my cup of tea.

  • Shanda Packard

    I AM YOGAWOMAN, HEAR ME ROAR (in lion pose, that is)

    Love the concept, very interesting to highlight women’s specific needs in body / mind / spirit. Unfortunately, the dramatization of this film makes the discussion of women’s unique needs seem huber feminist, which may take away from the message.

    And let’s also remember our yogic brethren. It could’ve been very interesting and inclusive by simply highlighting the different needs of men and women in yoga.

  • I agree with Stephanie, women come in all shapes and sizes but being a true commercial endeavour – this trailer indicates that mostly – there was one group of curvy/big women shown – slim and incredibly flexible women are the Yogawomen and in the reel world that my be so – but in my world I see REAL women doing yoga breathing into their asanas and finding the power and connection that Sean mentioned and being filled with gratitude for a body that can change as they go deeper into their yoga practice. We need REAL women recognized as the true supporters of yoga.

  • I saw this trailer a couple weeks ago, and I have to say that no matter how cheesy it may be, I’m still super excited that there’s a documentary coming out about the yoga movement, and about women in particular. No matter how far we may think we’ve come, there can never be enough women empowerment.

  • Jenny

    I think all those male yogis reincarnated as women today in the west so that they could figure out what it really feels like to be free as shakti! Get a nice taste of AWEsomeness! ha ha!

  • Yoga Lover

    I’m excited to see anything, especially Yoga (!) that is empowering to women, and can’t wait to watch it, I’m sure it will be worthwhile. I do hope it is not as skimming-the-surface as other yoga documentaries that I’ve seen. Also I disagree with the historical point that women have not been allowed in the yoga tradition until recently, generally yes this is true. But there are yoginis, such as Lady Niguma, partner and teacher of Master Naropa that we can see throughout history affecting the flow of the yoga tradition. And what about talking about modern yogis such as Mother Teresa and Ammachi? Hope to see the other 7 branches of yoga covered, and not just asana. It’s time for the tradition to develop further in the west, and have the deeper meanings of yoga addressed, the deeper goals, if one so chooses. Going to yoga for yoga butt is fine if that’s what you want, but life is short, and it’s wake up time, don’t we all want something deeper… ?

  • Yogi Bear

    This looks a reet load of cack.

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